Exploring the Stars

The most exciting prospects for remote observation from the space
station exist for astronomy, because in this case, besides the
possibility of using large telescopes at will, there are two other
advantages: the radiations from the stars arrive completely
unweakened
and undistorted, and the sky appears totally black. Thus, for
example, the latter condition would permit carrying out all those
observations of the sun that can be performed on the Earth only
during a total solar eclipse by simply occulting the solar disk
using a round black screen.

Our entire solar system including all its planets, planetoids,
comets, large and small moons, etc. could be studied down to the
smallest detail. Even both ("inner") planets, Venus
and Mercury, which are close to the sun could be observed just
as well as the more distant ("outer") planets,
observations
that are not possible from the Earth due to dawn and dusk, a
problem
already mentioned. Therefore, the surfaces of at least all the
near celestial bodies (Moon, Venus, Mars, Mercury), as far as
they are visible to us, could be precisely studied and
topographically
mapped by remote photography. Even the question of whether the
planets are populated, or at least whether they would be
inhabitable,
could probably be finally decided in this manner.

The most interesting discoveries would, however, presumably be
made in the world of the fixed stars. Many unsolved puzzles at
these extreme distances would be solved, and our knowledge of
the functioning of the world would be considerably enhanced,
perhaps
even to a degree that it would then be possible to draw conclusions
with absolute certainty about the past and the future fate of
our own solar system, including the Earth.

Besides their immediate value, all of these research results would
also have, however, the greatest significance for the future
development
of space travel, because when the conditions in those regions
of space and on those celestial bodies at which our travel is
aiming are exactly known to us, then a trip to outer space would
no longer venture into the unknown, and therefore would lose
some of its inherent danger.